Tuesday 26 September 2023

Skulferatu #105 - Shell Grotto, Newhailes, Musselburgh

 

On a stroll through the Newhailes estate, I took shelter in the woods from the ominous dark clouds gathering in the sky.  There I came across a small and rather sorry looking building, this being the remains of the Shell Grotto.  It was once a rather grand, little structure that stood as a central feature in the water gardens.  These were a series of pools that were fed by a burn that runs through the estate.  The pools are now long gone and are just a series of dips in the ground.

 

A photo of the Shell Grotto at Newhailes, which is a small, roofless building with an arched doorway.  There is a swirling iron gate in the doorway and the facade of the building is constructed of rough, lumpy, and bumpy stone.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The Shell Grotto

 

In the Eighteenth Century, Shell Grottos were the must haves for fashionable, rich British landowners, and the owners of Newhailes, the Dalrymples, were rich enough and fashionable enough to have one built.  The Shell Grotto in Newhailes was one of the first built in Scotland and was probably built in the 1770s. 

 

A photo showing a closer view of the Shell Grotto at Newhailes, which is a small, roofless building with an arched doorway.  There is a swirling iron gate in the doorway and the facade of the building is constructed of rough, lumpy, and bumpy stone.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The Shell Grotto

 

A photo of the entrance of the Shell Grotto at Newhailes, showing the rough stones and patterned top stones around the doorway.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Entrance to the Shell Grotto

 

The Shell Grotto was constructed of large boulders and rubble, with the façade at the entrance being decorated with furnace slag and sponge-stone to give it a mysterious and eerie look, like the entrance to a volcanic cavern.  It was originally roofed in slate and had a floor of black marble.  The walls inside were at one time lined with wood covered in plaster, in which were embedded thousands upon thousands of seashells, precious stones and fragments of coloured glass all arranged into various patterns. 

 

The shells in the walls not only came from the local beaches, but also as far away as China.  In 1774, Jenny Dalrymple wrote to her brother William, who was in Canton, and asked him to find her shells from there for the grotto.

 

As well as being designed as a place for quiet contemplation, reading or just retreating from life for an hour or two, the Shell Grotto was also meant to be a place of mood and mystery.  Excavations there a few years ago, found that there had at one time been a chimney and a ‘stoke hole’ behind the grotto as well as flues in the walls of the building.  Rather than being constructed for heating the grotto, they appeared to have been designed to produce and emit smoke, to add a mysterious atmosphere to the building.

 

Though abandoned for many years, the interior of the Shell Grotto was intact up until the 1950s, when it was vandalised and set on fire.  Now the roof and the interior decoration are all gone.  Today, there are thousands of shells lying on the floor of the Grotto, but I don’t think any of them are the original shells from the walls, but rather are a recent addition in an attempt to put some shells back into the Shell Grotto.

 

A photo showing thousands of seashells lying on the ground of the floor of the Shell grotto at Newhailes.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Shells in the Shell Grotto

 

I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on my stroll to the Shell Grotto, in a dimple on a rock in the entrance façade.

 

A photo showing a hand holding up a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 105) with the Shell Grotto building in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #105

 

A small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 105) in a dimple in the rough rock at the top of the entrance to the Shell Grotto. Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #105 in a dimple on a rock in the entrance façade

 

A small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 105) in a dimple in the rough rock at the top of the entrance to the Shell Grotto. Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #105 in a dimple on a rock in the entrance façade

 

TomTom Map showing the location of Skulferatu #105
Map showing the location of Skulferatu #105

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.942634

Longitude -3.081671

 

what3words: crops.impose.park

 

For an idea of what parts of the decoration inside the Grotto may have looked like when it was complete, visit the website for the Shell Grotto in Margate.

 

I used the following sources for information on the Shell Grotto –

 

 

Tourist Information sign at site

Newhailes
By Hilary Horrocks
2004
 

 

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